My
contact details are near the bottom of this page.
If you have a minute though, do check out why I believe The Bible
is still the clearest guide to understanding the mess this world's in - by
having a look in between.....
Index | Homepage | Good Links | Bad Links | Search | Guestbook
My
contact details are near the bottom of this page.
If you have a minute though, do check out why I believe The Bible
is still the clearest guide to understanding the mess this world's in - by
having a look in between.....
Wouldn't it be satisfying if the energy being put in to help sort out our misdirected world could turn things around? It would be comforting to think so but realistically the banks, corporate media and other transnational corporations, the merger maniacal 'dark side', are extending their monopolistic control. The modern transnational corporation is an immortal, soulless collusion of greed that reduces everything it touches to a dollar value. In law a corporation is a person, able to own property and resources just as a person can only, it seems, not responsible for the deaths it causes.
Lies are becoming more common - liars are rewarded in the scrabble of the marketplace - but this serves to remind some of us of how important the truth is. However unpalletable.
'When a man lies, he murders some part of the world'
Merlin, in the John Boorman film - Excalibur
Land, money and media are means of control.... Deprive people of their land and you can control them with money seems to be the long and short of it.... and most of us have been got by the short and curlies.
The Law has been appropriated, twisted by the establishmet elite and used as a tool against ordinary people. God's law is simple:
The Bible tells us faith without action is not enough. Jesus' (His actual name was Yeshua. Jesus is a Greek translation) Jesus' direct action in the temple - overturning the tables of the moneychangers and the traders who were selling goods for sacrifice - condemning them all as a 'den of thieves' is one of the most inspiring moments in the New Testament. Though the fact that it was the only occasion that Jesus used force in his ministry tells us not to see civil disobedience as the solution in what is essentially a spiritual battle, or a battle for the truth over the lies of the adversary.
"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be resolved sooner or later is The People v. The Banks." Lord Acton: Lord Chief Justice of England, 1875
"For the love of money is the root of all evil" 1 Timothy 6:10
I have looked at many spiritual beliefs but nothing has touched me like Jesus' teachings and actions. The sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7) shows that no-one has understood the importance of love, nor exactly what it means, more than Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah. I challenge anyone reading this to find any text in history to compare with it. Tell me at tony@gaia.org if you can.
I'm not into the establishment church and 'middle men' like vicars & professional priests or pastors at all. The Old Testament prophecies that told of the coming of a Messiah, coupled with Jesus's attitude to the ecclesiastical and legal hierarchies of his day, have led me to examine the Bible more closely and find, life changing prophecies of the 'End Times', particularly relating to the re-establishment of His people, Isreal.
At least 52 different aspects of Christ's coming were prophesied in the Old Testament (see pp. xxvi-xxix, Jewish New Testament ISBN 965 359 006 5, Jewish New Testament Pubs. Inc. Maryland N.J. U.S.A.). Yet still He was not recognised as 'the anointed one' or Messiah by many people who professed the Jewish faith. With a bit of Bible study we can be sure not to make that mistake as the prophecies of the End Times unfold and Christ returns ultimately in glory for all the world to see.
World Government is moving closer all the time - and what's
the chance that it will serve the people? Zero! And nobody tells the public
how antidemocratic the European Union is. We could be in for some serious
skullduggery in coming years/months. A political/financial crisis, combined
with spiritual disinformation could push us into a Fourth Reich, New World
Order, with an official world religion that claims to represent ALL religions.
Powerful people will certainly be preparing their version of a spiritual
'panacea' to fill the spiritual gap THEY have created.
Whilst political action against the greedy and for positive solutions gives us hope, it doesn't necessarily add up to much against the combined power of the capitalists, the armed forces and many of the media bosses! So the solution, it seems, will be spiritual and not political. We are in the middle of an an undeclared spiritual war and here The Bible is a peaceful but potent weapon - here are some passages which have meant a lot to me and form a basis for a different church to the one most of us know. Many of the Pentecostal churches concentrate on this side of Christianity but, so far as I know, still use a single professional (and unbiblical) pastor.
I found myself drawn to Quakerism because we emphasise individual faith and testimony: The Society of Freinds was founded in England in the seventeenth century at the same time as the birth of state capitalism. The merchant classes in England conducted a comprehensive takeover from the aristocracy.
For more on The Quakers see the Journal of George Fox, itinerant man of God and the society's founder. Fox emphasised a direct personal relationship with God, through the Holy Spirit, and the need to repent in ones heart of previous sins to be forgiven.
...the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One. 1 John 5:19
"who hath ears to hear, let him hear", Matthew 13:43
"Come to me all of you who are struggling and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30
"This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." John 15:12,13
"Fear not therefore: for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; and nothing hid that shall not be made known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in the light and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops." Matthew 10:26-27
Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. Ephesians 5:11
And Yahweh answered me, and said, "Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." Habakkuk 2:2
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place or you. I will come back and take you to be with me so that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going." John 14:1-4
In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes" Luke 10:21
"If any man thirst, come to me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." John 7:37-38
"when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret. Your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, don't babble on and on like the pagans, who think God will hear them better if they talk a lot. Don't be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Matthew 6:6-8
Don't owe anyone anything - except to love one another; for whoever loves his fellow human being has fulfilled the Torah [Old Testament Law]. Romans 13:8
"...when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth?" Luke 18:8
Put on the whole armour of God so you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:11-12
When people are saying: "Peace and Safety" then a sudden destruction cometh upon them as upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 1 Thessalonians 5:3
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city, stay there a year trading and make a profit"! You don't even know if you will be alive tomorrow! For all you are is a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. James 4:13-14
"Ye have heard that it was said in the Old Testament: Thou shalt not commit adultery; But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and throw it away; For it is better one part of thee should perish than thy whole body be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and throw it away; for it is better one of thy limbs should perish than thy whole body be cast into hell." Matthew 5:27-30
"All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. "Matthew 19:11-12
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." Matthew 10:16
The spirit of man is the candle of Yahweh. Proverbs 20:27
Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie---behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you. Revelation 3:9
No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon [money, riches]. Matthew 6:24
Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common. Acts 4:32
You have heard that our fathers were told 'Do not break your oath,' and 'Fulfill what you have sworn to God.' And I tell you not to swear at all... Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No'; anything else comes from the devil. Matthew 5:33&37
Come now, you rich. Weep and wail for the miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and ther rust will be evidence against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of Yahweh of heaven's armies. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a time of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the righteous who were not opposing you. James 5:1-6
Woe to those who join house to house and field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. Yahweh of heaven's armies has sworn in my hearing: "Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant." Isaiah 5:8-9
'The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine and you are but my tenants'. God speaks to Moses, Leviticus 25:23
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. Isiah 11:6
"If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you I say to everyone: 'Watch!'" Mark 13:36-37
The sermon on the mount: Matthew 5-7
Yahweh's comfort in adversity: Psalm 23
Equality in marriage: 1 Corinthians 7:4
Guidance for the rich: 1 Timothy 6:17-19
Yeshuah describes the End of this World: Matthew
24
True Christian worship described: 1 Corinthians 14:26
Yeshuah's fiery condemnation of lawyers and priests: Matthew 23
Acknowledge Yeshuah in your heart and God will acknowledge you: Luke
12:8
Judas wrongly entrusted with the disciples' moneybag: John 12:4-6
Holy Spirit inspired the Gospel writers: John 14:25-26
Celebrate Diversity: Romans 14:13
Jewish New Testament, trans. David H Stern, pub. Jewish New Testament
Publications, ISBN 965 359 006 5
Jewish New Testament Commentary, David H Stern, pub. Jewish New Testament
Publications, ISBN 965 359 008 1
Complete Jewish Bible, trans. David H Stern, pub. Jewish New Testament
Publications Inc., ISBN 965 359 015 4
Action, not words is what changes things. Non-Violent Direct Action is, in most cases, doing the will of the people when the state refuses. When you see something that needs doing or stopping act to change it. Don't rely on the or 'jobsworth' authorities.
Like the days of Noah society is going way off course, the
family and marriage is becoming uncool in modern junk culture shaped by monied
power. Cultural gatekeepers in the BBC keep crucial issues like landlessness
and monetary reform off the agenda. If they do appear its always in a diluted
form.
To casual Christians, the logical 'progress' of humanity should mean that things would be getting better and better with people living in a happier and increasingly loving world. To them, present world events are puzzling. However this is a comfortable view which ignores Holy Scripture and its Biblical prophecies, many of which may have been fulfilled already.
The final overthrow of evil is predicted in the Bible but the established churches seem to ignore the most relevant bits. If a vicar speaks out against the Church establishment he risks getting kicked out of a job and a (probably beautiful) home like any other employee.
"Television works to control the society, to keep the culture credulous, to keep it from thinking, to enchant it literally, to spellbind it." An explanation of the end of Bill Hicks' career and his untimely death, from Totally, one of the Bill Hicks videos.
[Robert Morton - Producer, The David Letterman Show]:
We always pushed the envelope, by seeing OK, just how much of a fuck-you attitude can you have, without going over the line on network television. And that was always the thrill of presenting it.
ON OCTOBER 1st 1993 BILL HICKS' TWELFTH AND FINAL APPEARANCE ON THE DAVID LETTERMAN SHOW WAS CUT FROM THE TRANSMITTED PROGRAMME
[Richard Belzer]:
I can't quote you club owners or television executives by name, but I know
that the nature of what Bill did was not universally applauded and accepted
because it did challenge the status quo and it might upset certain political
sensibilities in the audience and in the corporate structure.
[John Lahr - Critic, The New Yorker]:
When his stuff was taken off the air or whatever, he wrote me a 32-page letter,
hand-written, a sort of a creed, he couldn't understand the situation, just
because, he was a free spirit, it was a joke, these jokes had import. But
it was the prescribing of his freedom which so offended him.
[David Letterman]:
Well, our relationship with Bill Hicks came to kind of a peculiar ending,
made all the more peculiar by the man's death. And I have personal regrets
about how our relationship developed prior to his death. So it makes me doubly
sad that he is now not around so that we can I think, correct mistakes that
were made on his behalf. So I feel a personal sense of regret regarding that.
[John Lahr - Critic, The New Yorker]:
And what it did also do was give him more material for his belief, correct
in my view, that television worked to control the society, to keep the culture
credulous, to keep it from thinking, to enchant it literally, to spellbind
it. And his job, as he saw it, was to break the spell.
[Bill Hicks]:
Go back to bed, America, your government has figured out how it all transpired,
go back to bed America, your government is in control again. Here, here's
American Gladiators, watch this, shut up, go back to bed America, here is
American Gladiators, here is 56 channels of it, watch these pituitary retards
bang their fucking skulls together and congratulate yourselves you're living
in the land of freedom. Here you go America - you are free to do as well
tell you! You are free to do as we tell you!
Transcribed from Bill Hicks: Totally - available on VHS video
The desire of traders to acquire wealth down the years has turned into greed of horrific proportions. Bankers, bosses of Transnational Corporations and media tycoons at the 'top' wash their hands of responsibility for the deaths of millions of innocent people across the world. "You want to change things...", they say, "get the politicians to do it!" But they pay and arm the politicians to do the opposite, to rob the needy and concentrate even more wealth in the hands of the rich. Its obscene. The politicians may be ours one day every five years, but they're under the influence of the super-rich for the other 1,824! That gives ordinary people hardly any say at all.
In the forties and fifties they invented a weapon that could wipe out mankind, if not life on earth. The thermonuclear H-bomb meant that if wealth was to be acquired it would have to be done stealthily and without upsetting governments. For this and other reasons big business around the world came together to formalize networks of influence with virtually limitless resources that transcended national boundaries and they began the final moves towards privatising the Earth. They knew the main difficulty would be the nation state so they plotted its downfall. Read more about this
The Earth is, as Gerrard Winstanley and the Diggers knew: '...a common treasury for all...' but its been gradually acquired as the 'private property' of the super-rich land-lords. No doubt, this is not how God intended it to work!
YHWH - the Tetragrammaton - God's name - usually written Yahweh
One correspondent told me this means simply - "I AM DOING WHAT I AM DOING"
The mainstream media has become lifeless with many of the most sensitive and caring contributors sacked and edited out. The arts have been taken over by advertisers and miserable rich patrons who want to simply use them to make money or express misery through conceptual or post-modern art.
We all want rewarding work because our time is all we have in this life and that precious time they want us to waste doing the donkey-work of the rich.
The 'joys' of prostituting ourselves to the global, corporate top-down business structures are crumbling around us. Low wages, short term contracts, doubts about social security/welfare, casual labour, union bashing, all of these trends make working for hire incrementally less attractive. It's nearly impossible to get out of the system since our fundamental rights and needs, especially for land, have been stripped away. The government even extorts income tax from employees so that just about everything you do is, at least in part, working for the corporate state. And those that have power over the state are not the people. They love it when we're feeding the whims of the rich.
The 'democratic' governments of the world have become little more than a perverted mishmash of Public Relations and Protection Racket!
Anyway... back to what we can do about it.
First we can refuse to compromise, that means refusing to swallow lies. I feel better already! We can all acknowledge the sad and sorry tale of the corrupt system.
So - we can all shine the spotlight into murky corners where the elites would rather we didn't. Let the world see what they are up to and see how they are taking us all for a ride, living off the land and the labour of others. Secondly we can turn our backs on their rotten hierarchical system of haves and have nots. "Oh poverty has always been there and it is a natural part of life that there will be winners and losers", they say... but its getting worse for those at the bottom at one hell of a rate and that's paganism, the law of the jungle. We want to live in a caring society where we can reject man's 'laws' of competition and selfishness in favour of agreements of co-operation, collectivism and return to God's law. The Ten Commandments and love thy neighbour as thyself.
As Gerrard Winstanley the Digger said back in 1648:
"Dear friends, It hath been the universall condition of the earth (mankind) to be over-spread with a black cloud of darkness; and the knowledge of the King of righteousness hath been manifested but in some few scattered ones... ...I spoke the name of God, and Lord, and Christ, but I knew not this Lord, God and Christ; I prayed to a God but I knew not where he was, nor what he was, and so walking by imagination, I worshipped that devill, and called him God; by reason wherof my comforts were often shaken to pieces, and at last it was shewed to me, That while I builded upon any words or writings of other men, or while I looked after a God without me, I did but build upon the sand, and as yet I knew not the rock."
From 'The Saints Paradice' 1648
Anyway, the second thing is to turn away from the dying system and to start making our own spaces, like this one, part of a low impact settlement.
In places like this we can work not for hire but voluntarily for what we want. We can agree our own rules and continue the process of coming together, organising in new ways of living. Treading lightly on the earth, not seeing it simply as a resource to plunder.
We can get ourselves organised by meeting up with people of a similar mind and take pride in being regarded as 'serious criminals' according to one of the UK's latest bits of fascist legislation, the Police Act 1997, because we dare participate in '...conduct by a number of persons in pursuit of a common purpose...'
By doing so we risk our homes and solicitors offices being bugged and camera'd up by the police and MI5, and our houses being secretly searched, without a warrant. Under the act, intelligence information on us can now be sold or 'exchanged for gifts of property' with any business the police think could make good use of it. Legalised bribery, just as the money system is legalised counterfeiting.
The Criminal Justice Act 1995 is a criminal Act of Parliament which, like the Public Order Act, gives the police power without responsibility. It makes innocent lifestyles: travellers, ravers etc. virtually illegal and was part of the militarisation of the police.
For me Britain had crossed the Rubicon on the journey to a police state. It was illegal to be outside the government approved system, to be different. It's what made me decide it wasn't enough to sit by and watch it happen.
nuff said
Far spread the moorey ground a level scene
Bespread with rush and one eternal green
That never felt the rage of blundering plough
Though centurys wreathed spring's blossoms on its brow
Still meeting plains that stretched them far away
In uncheckt shadows of green brown, and grey
Unbounded freedom ruled the wandering scene
Nor fence of ownership crept in between
To hide the prospect of the following eye
Its only bondage was the circling sky
One mighty flat undwarfed by bush and tree
Spread its faint shadow of immensity
And lost itself, which seemed to eke its bounds
In the blue mist the horizon's edge surrounds
Now this sweet vision of my boyish hours
Free as spring clouds and wild as summer flowers
Is faded all - a hope that blossomed free,
And hath been once, no more shall ever be
Inclosure came and trampled on the grave
Of labour's rights and left the poor a slave
And memory's pride ere want to wealth did bow
Is both the shadow and the substance now
The sheep and cows were free to range as then
Where change might prompt nor felt the bonds of men
Cows went and came, with evening morn and night,
To the wild pasture as their common right
And sheep, unfolded with the rising sun
Heard the swains shout and felt their freedom won
Tracked the red fallow field and heath and plain
Then met the brook and drank and roamed again
The brook that dribbled on as clear as glass
Beneath the roots they hid among the grass
While the glad shepherd traced their tracks along
Free as the lark and happy as her song
But now all's fled and flats of many a dye
That seemed to lengthen with the following eye
Moors, loosing from the sight, far, smooth, and blea
Where swopt the plover in its pleasure free
Are vanished now with commons wild and gay
As poet's visions of life's early day
Mulberry-bushes where the boy would run
To fill his hands with fruit are grubbed and done
And hedgrow-briars - flower-lovers overjoyed
Came and got flower-pots - these are all destroyed
And sky-bound mores in mangled garbs are left
Like mighty giants of their limbs bereft
Fence now meets fence in owners' little bounds
Of field and meadow large as garden grounds
In little parcels little minds to please
With men and flocks imprisoned, ill at ease
Each little path that led its pleasant way
As sweet as morning leading night astray
Where little flowers bloomed round a varied host
That travel felt delighted to be lost
Nor grudged the steps that he had ta-en as vain
When right roads traced his journeys and again -
Nay, on a broken tree he'd sit awhile
To see the mores and fields and meadows smile
Sometimes with cowslaps smothered - then all white
With daiseys - then the summer's splendid sight
Of cornfields crimson o'er the headache bloomd
Like splendid armys for the battle plumed
He gazed upon them with wild fancy's eye
As fallen landscapes from an evening sky
These paths are stopt - the rude philistine's thrall
Is laid upon them and destroyed them all
Each little tyrant with his little sign
Shows where man claims earth glows no more divine
But paths to freedom and to childhood dear
A board sticks up to notice 'no road here'
And on the tree with ivy overhung
The hated sign by vulgar taste is hung
As tho' the very birds should learn to know
When they go there they must no further go
Thus, with the poor, scared freedom bade goodbye
And much they feel it in the smothered sigh
And birds and trees and flowers without a name
All sighed when lawless law's enclosure came
And dreams of plunder in such rebel schemes
Have found too truly that they were but dreams.
John Clare 1793-1864
Here is the righteous law; man wilt thou it maintain?
It may be, is, as hath still, in the world been slain.
Truth appears in light, falsehood rules in power;
To see these things to be is cause of grief each hour.
Knowledge, why didst thou comes to wound and not to cure?
I sent not for thee, thou didst me inlure.
Where knowledge does increase, there sorrows multiply,
To see the great deceit which in the world doth lie:
Man saying one thing now, unsaying it anon,
Breaking all’s engagements, when deeds for him are done.
O power where art thou, that must mend things amiss?
Come change the heart of man, and make him truth to kiss.
O death where art thou? Wilt thou not tidings send?
I fear thee not, thou art my loving friend.
Come take this body, and scatter it in the four,
That I may dwell in one, and rest in peace once more.
Gerrard Winstanley (The Digger), The Law Of Freedom, 1652 published here
Lord make me an instrument of the war against evil,
Where there is vandalism against Thy creation
Let me campaign to stop it,
Where there is sabotage of Thy genetic ordainings,
Let me fight like hell to prevent it.
Where there is conspiracy to dominate Thy world with boardroom greed,
Let me join with others to wage an unremitting struggle to oppose it.
Where giant political forces combine with money makers and pocket liners
to assume control of community concerns such as education, health,
commerce, banks, law and order and work,
Let me be quick to affirm the overriding need for such matters to be
restored
to local community life so that Thy moral laws may prevail.
Where there is passivity, deference and conformism to the powers of
darkness which are degrading society and its individual members, let me be
a powerful witness to oppose them.
Divine master, grant that I may not so much seek to live a quiet life as
to be
in the vanguard of those who would enhance life, not so much to grab as to
give, not to evade my social obligations as to shoulder them, not to be
afraid
of power as to be imbued with courage with others to control it for worthy
ends.
For it is in striving to act with love that we affirm love, and in devoting ourselves to noble causes we are redeemed, and in giving ourselves utterly to the service of truth, love and beauty in shared, fully democratic communities we rise to the life immortal.
John Papworth
Fourth World Review no.97 - 1999 -
john.papworth@btinternet.com
First they came for the communists
and I did not speak out -
because I was not a communist
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out -
because I was not a trade unionist
Next they came for the Catholics
and I did not speak out -
because I was not a Catholic
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Niemoeller, protestant minister and victim of the Nazis
Notes:
To Tony's total index zone containing lists of every page